Summary: According to Jane Henson, young writers learn their craft in a social environment.
Interpretation: Jane Henson discusses how young children first learn to write--what they learn in what order, how they learn it, and why they ever want to learn at all. For me, the biggest takeaway is that children are interested in writing because they want to express meaningful experiences with other people. Because of this, students are most engaged if they have a say in their writing subject and if they conceived of themselves as writing to a meaningful audience. Feedback is also key. The more the audience responds with interest--with questions and comments--the more the student will pursue and develop the writing.
Interrogation: How should the teacher balance providing encouraging feedback that rewards effort while at the same time providing the necessary criticism to prompt and direct growth? Perhaps more importantly, how should teachers regulate student feedback? What rules are necessary to make sure students feel safe sharing their writing with each other? Coming from a middle school perspective, I am concerned about the ways that bullying might manifest in a writerly context.
Evaluation: From this article, I have learned that
1. Students should be encouraged to write about subjects and in a way that is meaningful for them to real audiences they care about. This is because writing is fundamentally about expressing important ideas to important people, and the less artificial that is in the classroom, the more students will want to learn.
2. Students are quite sensitive to feedback. On the one hand, a lack of interest or feedback can completely stifle writing. On the other hand, interest--even critical interest--can encourage students in the idea that they are pursuing something worthwhile.
3. It is important for students to learn conventions like spelling, grammar, and penmanship. To the greatest extent possible, however, instruction about these topics should connect directly to communicating. Students will naturally want to adopt effective norms if they are motivated to communicate. It's this communication that should motivate learning the basics.
My journal:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/14j52N6JVEt00R0DTHT8OvGX0Q4Y4Z-8sv5COIQHYIck/edit
For now, I hope to catalogue problems I encounter while writing at this journal.
Here is a link to my timeline:
http://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/timeline3/latest/embed/index.html?source=1eGW78acdsAfNKCW0RlLkoSmcGWtN9UiMDFrwNKp3HAI&font=Default&lang=en&initial_zoom=2&height=650
Summary: According to Jane Henson, young writers learn their craft in a social environment.
Interpretation: Jane Henson discusses how young children first learn to write--what they learn in what order, how they learn it, and why they ever want to learn at all. For me, the biggest takeaway is that children are interested in writing because they want to express meaningful experiences with other people. Because of this, students are most engaged if they have a say in their writing subject and if they conceived of themselves as writing to a meaningful audience. Feedback is also key. The more the audience responds with interest--with questions and comments--the more the student will pursue and develop the writing.
Interrogation: How should the teacher balance providing encouraging feedback that rewards effort while at the same time providing the necessary criticism to prompt and direct growth? Perhaps more importantly, how should teachers regulate student feedback? What rules are necessary to make sure students feel safe sharing their writing with each other? Coming from a middle school perspective, I am concerned about the ways that bullying might manifest in a writerly context.
Evaluation: From this article, I have learned that
1. Students should be encouraged to write about subjects and in a way that is meaningful for them to real audiences they care about. This is because writing is fundamentally about expressing important ideas to important people, and the less artificial that is in the classroom, the more students will want to learn.
2. Students are quite sensitive to feedback. On the one hand, a lack of interest or feedback can completely stifle writing. On the other hand, interest--even critical interest--can encourage students in the idea that they are pursuing something worthwhile.
3. It is important for students to learn conventions like spelling, grammar, and penmanship. To the greatest extent possible, however, instruction about these topics should connect directly to communicating. Students will naturally want to adopt effective norms if they are motivated to communicate. It's this communication that should motivate learning the basics.